Hydel project in Arunachal threatening a 'Dalai Lama'

TAWANG (ARUNACHAL PRADESH): Near the India border with China and Bhutan, in the village of Lumpu in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, local resident Nawang Chotta feels at peace. After a year's absence, the black-necked crane or 'Trung-Trung Karmo' as local Monpa Buddhists call it is back at its winter retreat in the valley. The bird is revered by the 1 lakh-strong community as an embodiment of the sixth Dalai Lama, but is at the centre of unrest brewing over a hydroelectric project nearby.

"The moment I spotted the cranes I prayed: let our village host the harbingers of peace and good harvest forever," Chotta said.

The life of Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama, never fit neatly into the framework of a religious leader. Born in 1683 at the Urgelling monastery, 5 km from Tawang, he was declared as the Dalai when he was 15 at a time when Mongol and Manchu rulers were vying for control of Tibet. By the time Tsangyang took over in 1697, the situation had turned extremely volatile. The unwilling head of the monastic order renounced his vows - the first and only Dalai Lama to do so - and took to alcohol, archery, young women and love poetry.

White crane!

Lend me your wings.

I shall not fly far;

From Lithang, I shall

return

The sixth Dalai Lama wrote hundreds of such poems before 1706, when he was put under house arrest. He died the same year. The "crane" became an enduring symbol of the sixth Dalai Lama. Every winter, black-necked cranes migrate from Tibet and China's Xinjiang province in small flocks. Sangti Valley in West Kameng district and Zemithang are the only wintering sites of the bird in India. The crane also breeds in Ladakh and Bhutan.

A Schedule I species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 - the highest legal protection given to birds and wildlife - the black-necked crane has been classified as 'vulnerable' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its Red List of Threatened Species. In Arunachal Pradesh, thelocal communities never harm it. But greater disruptions could be in store.

In 2012, the ministry of environment gave environmental clearance to the Rs 6,400-crore 780-MW Nyamjang Chhu hydroelectric project. A 3km stretch of the Nyamjang Chhu ('chhu' means river in Monpa) between Brokenthang and Zemithang that comes under the project area is also a wintering site for the black-necked crane. Officers in charge of the hydroelectric project had said there are few, if any, black-necked cranes to be seen in the valley.

The clearance was challenged by Save Mon Region Federation, a conservation group led by Buddhist lamas, at the National Green Tribunal, successfully. The Nyamjang Chhu project is one of 13 mega power proposed in Tawang. "The population of Tawang is about 49,000. We don't need so many projects. These are meant to generate electricity to be sold outside, at the cost of our livelihoods and ecology," Lobsang Gyatso, a lama and general secretary of SMRF, had told TOI in 2013.

In 2016, NGT suspended the environmental clearance given to the project and asked the environment ministry to conduct a study on its environmental impact. And it is this report on which the Monpas are counting on.

"The survival of the wintering site depends on the WII report," says Degin Dorjee, a teacher in Zemithang. "We don't know what is in the WII report, we don't know if it is complete or when it will be. We don't know when the public hearing on the report will be held," Dorjee added.

In 2016, Lobsang Gyatso was arrested after he said the Guru Tulku Rinpoche should not interfere with "hydropower politics" in Tawang. The Tulku Rinpoche is the spiritual head of the Mon region and abbot of the Tawang Monastery, the second largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Locally, it was perceived that he was in favour of the dam. Days later, several anti-dam protesters stormed the Tawang police station and demanded Gyatso's release. Police opened fire and a monk and a civilian were killed.

Hydel projects have begun disrupting local culture and ecology, said protesters. Two hydropower projects on the Tawang river - the 600-MW Tawang I project and the 800-MW Tawang II project - have been proposed on areas considered sacred by the Buddhists. "The barrage of Tawang I project will affect a site where Guru Padmasambhava's meditation chair was carved out of a rock," said an SMRF activist. Padmasambhava was an 8th century spiritual leader who is believed to have visited and consecrated a site about 45 km from Tawang town. "Besides, there is a sacred site, Tongsheng, which we fear will be hit by the Tawang-I. Similarly, the Tawang-II project will affect a sacred site called Shangkya," the activist added.

Both Tawang I and II projects got environmental clearance in 2011, but the final forest clearance is pending. The Tawang-II project is also an important habitat for the red panda, categorised as 'endangered' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The hill state has a hydropower generation potential of 46,806 MW. Government-backed discussions often refer to cultural and environmental concerns as "roadblocks". In September, the Standing Committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) cleared the 1,750-sMW Demwe hydropower project over the Lohit river.

"The NBWL did not take into account the threat posed by the project to the sacred Parashuram Kund, located close the dam site," said Biman Gogoi, an environment activist who moved the NGT in 2017 against the project, following which the forest clearance was suspended.

Parashuram Kund, which about 2 lakh Hindu pilgrims visit annually during Makar Sankranti, is barely 800m from the proposed project site. In addition to the religious significance, the area is very close to the Kamlang Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh while the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Biosphere Reserve in Assam is located in the downstream area.